Duchenne muscular dystrophy in a developing country: challenges in management and genetic counseling.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Multidisciplinary management of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) has achieved outstanding results in developed nations. We aimed to describe the status of diagnosis and management of DMD in a developing country through the experience of non-profit organizations. METHODS: A Multistate, multiple-source, population-based survey was performed from medical records of 432 patients. Data were retrospectively collected, reviewed and curated by health specialists; including clinical features, age at first symptoms, age at diagnosis, disease progression and management, family history, education, age and cause of death. RESULTS: There is a delay in noticing first symptoms and it did not diminish over the past 20 years. Less than 30% of patients obtained definite diagnosis and most of them are in physiotherapy programs but not under steroid treatment. In our study, family history does not anticipate recognition of symptoms compared to sporadic cases (p = 0.05). Approximately 93.33% of our patients attended to education programs. Mean age at death was 18.94 +/- 6.73 years and the most frequent cause was pneumonia. CONCLUSION: Delayed diagnosis of DMD in Mexico is mainly caused by the late detection of first symptoms. There is no difference in early detection of symptoms between familiar and sporadic cases. Lifespan of patients in our cohort is reduced compared to developed countries. The late diagnosis and low percentage of definite cases may affect patient management and genetic counseling and could also preclude participation of patients into novel clinical trials.

A new de novo mutation in a non-hot spot region at the DMD gene in a Mexican family.

In this report we present the analysis of a sporadic case of DMD and his family. In the present case, a deletion of exons 18-47 is presented which predicts abolition of the reading frame and is located between the well-known deletion hot spots of the DMD gene. This mutation was not previously reported in the Leiden database (LOVD). Both MLPA and segregation analysis with short tandem repeat markers elucidated the status of the mother, sister and the younger brother of the proband, who were not carriers of the mutation. This case provides a description of a new pathogenic variant presented as de novo mutation in a DMD patient. Haplotype analysis and complete gene screening may improve genetic counseling in cases of germline mosaicism and de novo mutations.